


sure some hazardry

by parkadescandal



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: ...and everything that implies, Bro talk, No one is surprised, post-kh3, tagged ships are implied/endgame but aren't quite there yet, this was about terra but i made it about riku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 21:48:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19385278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parkadescandal/pseuds/parkadescandal
Summary: Two bros, chilling in a training ground, no feet apart because they're commiserating over their torrid backstories.





	sure some hazardry

**Author's Note:**

> this was not what i was meant to be writing but it sure did happen anyway. 
> 
> implied pining/pre-shipping. a tiny and optimistic slice of life from my post-canon worst case scenario--sora presumably dusted, riku goes to train at the land of departure and sulk in corners and drink juice out of the carton with the fridge wide open while wearing a dead eyed stare as wayfinders wrestle with their demons and wonder how their perfect life model decoy example of How To Overcome Your Darkness In Ten Steps Or Fewer survived past childhood, actually

Terra steps his way back into consciousness, adrenaline leaving him in waves. 

He’s gasping, choking and clawing his way back out of inky pools, from the white gloved grip of Master Xehanort, from the grasp of his own hand-- _Aqua_ , sturdy and strong in the face of a grisly end. Yellow eyes reflect from every vantage point. He’s drowning on dry land. 

Terribly fortunate he’s among like company. His lungs aren’t the only ones still full of the darkness that still laps around their ankles, their hearts. 

Which is why it seems he’s becoming accustomed to a particular flash of silver hair, reclaimed from his nightmares and plunked down into the Land of Departure for its owner to brood in corners and overexert on the training grounds. _Two peas in a pod_ , he thinks. _The things that matter._

Their routines align, his and the boy’s, to which Terra is endeared. They’re well matched, he thinks, happy to have had one instinct turn out right. Not everyone gets the instant gratification. He gets to fast forward to a time where he’s far closer to Aqua’s age than to the baby cheeked trainee he’d had every intention of coddling. That quiet determination remains. 

But it seems what one has the other covets--Riku carries a confidence about him, fearlessness in the face of the darkness that doesn’t so much as sleep as catnap within him. Terra thinks on it with respect on mornings like this, when he emerges from the echo of raspy promises of power that his dreams won’t let him shake. But while Terra can take solace in love from the people he holds dearest, he senses a shroud of mourning descended over Riku. The strength to protect is there, but what matters is gone. 

In solidarity they project their demons onto the castle’s ancient training grounds. Riku has arrived just a hair’s breadth before him as usual, crouching before the practice rings so he can leap up to reach them and commit to a session of acrobatics. Legs akimbo, he swings, carrying himself midair before he summons his blade to practice his forms--prepared for an airstrike, it seems. 

Grateful for the distraction, Terra decides to test how well Riku can hold his own should he attack from the ground; he silently throws himself forward, summoning his own blade with intent to knock him out of the air. He’s delighted to find his blade meet steel as Riku counters him with one arm while still suspending himself midair with the other. Terra takes a hand from his blade and waves. Riku flips down to land on his feet and stumbles; he only laughs in acknowledgement as he reaches out to take it Terra’s outstretched hand. 

“Guess I gotta get up earlier in the morning if I’m gonna pull one over on you?” Terra asks with mirth. 

“Nah. Catch up on your beauty sleep,” Riku responds. “I just got lucky.” 

Terra doubts that. It’s a compliment, in its own way. He’s heard tell of this kid wiping out dozens with his eyes literally closed. 

“Wanna test that one out?” he says, extending his blade in proposition, and he watches Riku’s eyes light up. 

“I’ve got a lot to learn from you,” he says, taking position to fight. 

“I could muster some skill,” Terra says with a smile before he lunges ahead. A block, a parry, a near miss, but somehow Terra still comes out ahead, having pinned him with Ends of the Earth until he dismisses his blade and puts his hands up in concession. 

“See?” Riku says. 

Terra finds himself reaching out to him once more to lift him up and brush him off. He puts a hand on his shoulder with a gentle shake and looks down at him, and Riku looks down, shaking his head. 

“I don’t know,” Terra says. “Sometimes I think it’s more the other way around.” 

He walks over to the stone bench, leading him along to join him, and they sit side by side in pensive silence for a while. 

“I used to dream about you coming back,” Riku says just a moment after the sun has peeked its way up the horizon. “When I… came of age, I guess. I assumed that one day you’d come and pick me up, explain to my parents that I was going away for a while. And I waited.” 

He’s silent for another moment, but Terra knows not to respond. He hasn’t earned his contrition just yet. 

“You never left a return address,” Riku says, looking up at him. It’s not bitter. “And there weren’t any instructions. Now I know that you were… a little tied up,” he euphemizes, cocking his head to one side, “but for a long time, the thought of seeing other worlds with your ticket out of the Destiny Islands was what kept me level.” 

“I would have liked that,” Terra says lightly after a moment. “That was the goal. But I think you taught yourself better than I ever could have. In fact, I have a lot to learn from you about finding that balance. I never could have given it to you.” 

“Don’t say tha--”

“It’s not a bad thing,” he says warmly, holding up a hand to stall him. “You would have been influenced by my tainted relationship with the darkness just as I was from my master before me. It was all I knew until Xehanort forced my hand. You would have figured it out on your own. I’m confident.” 

“Thanks,” Riku says. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you it wasn’t easy.” 

“That’s the least of my problems,” Terra says with a smile. 

He leans back, breathing in. Even the humidity tastes like home. Small blessings. 

“I wouldn’t worry,” Riku says, and there’s a kindness in his voice. “It looks like you have all the right things to get started.” 

Terra looks upon his smile, almost awed with deja vu. The thought of those earnest bright eyes tainted by ink and gold seems impossible; _how did they ever get_ you? Terra thinks. He’ll take as much comfort in it as he can--the best of us, the rest of us. But he knows a thing or two. 

Loath as he is to press the subject he’s relieved when Riku speaks again. 

“When I passed my Mark of Mastery it wasn’t on my own, not really.” He stares ahead, inscrutable. “I had a lot of help. Knowing where I started, remembering _why_ … it ended up being less than a test. Take it or leave it. It was more like… a class on its own.”

A trial by fire; learning on the go.

“Did you want to do it?” 

“I wanted a chance to prove myself. And then…” His voice cracks, but if it weren’t so quiet Terra would never have known. “And then that didn’t matter anymore. Then it was only for Sora.” 

Terra wades through an echoing sorrow. Gasping, flailing. _Terra, I know you’re in there!_ Every inch of his will expended, her voice ricocheting in his brain. _The darkness can’t have you!_

“You know,” Terra says with measured care. “That may not be a bad place to start.” 

“Yeah?” 

“One day. Eventually. When Ven’s ready. You usually don’t test on your own, but he won’t go through it for a while yet.” 

“Well,” Riku says, “It’s funny you say that.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“Because I was just talking to Aqua,” he says with a wry grin. “And she says considering the circumstances of the first round, she wouldn’t mind doing it again.” 

**Author's Note:**

> as usual this started as jokes and ended up being the prelude to an eventual action/adventure + romance epic in which terra and aqua do the whole dramatic dream drop role reversal thing while in the back(dream)drop riku finally snaps and embarks on a literal soul finding journey to get back his mans which is couched in at least two science fiction tropes of my choice. give me like, a calendar year or so.
> 
> it's been quiet around here bc i'm trucking along on a few projects that i either can't or won't show y'all yet, but watch this space.
> 
> i'd be a shell of a woman, just the biggest nobody of them all were it not for pineovercoat's sage advice & gentle goading. 
> 
> i'm sorry i'm the kind of person who writes more in the notes than in the fic itself. 
> 
>  
> 
> [title](https://youtu.be/9UtQe0JOCnM)


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